NOAA prepares to lose another 1,029 employees

"With this next round, things are going to break, and they're going to break badly," said a NOAA official with the first Trump administration.

March 10, 2025

NOAA managers are facing a new countdown clock to identify an additional 1,029 employees to be culled from the agency as part of a "reduction in force" plan that would cut deeper into the agency's science, regulatory and education programs, according to people familiar with what NOAA workers have been told about the plan.

In a directive announced Friday to the heads of NOAA's line and staff offices, managers have until Tuesday afternoon to provide new lists of employees whose jobs are deemed nonessential to NOAA's core mission, said Richard Spinrad, NOAA's former administrator under the Biden administration.

Spinrad said he was told of the new order by several employees who had direct knowledge of it. A current worker at NOAA, who was granted anonymity because they fear retaliation, confirmed they also had been told about the staff reduction planning.

Those names will be sent to the Commerce Department for final review, with firing notices expected as soon as Wednesday.

While the recent firings of probationary employees were based on tenure with the agency, usually less than one or two years, Spinrad said the next round of cuts are likely to target specific offices and programs.

"I'd say this this has gone from a using a chainsaw to more of a meat cleaver. It’s still pretty harsh cuts," he said. "The impacts are beginning to be felt across the whole agency."

The new cuts are in addition to the roughly 650 probationary employees fired Feb. 27 and the more than 400 staff who retired or accepted the Trump administration's "deferred resignation" option last month rather than face the prospect of being fired later. The first round of losses amounted to between 8 and 10 percent of the agency's roughly 12,000 employees.

"We were already into the muscle of the agency" with the probationary cuts, said Tim Gallaudet, who served under the first Trump administration as assistant Commerce secretary for oceans and atmosphere, including a year and a half as acting NOAA administrator. "With this next round, things are going to break, and they're going to break badly."

Monica Allen, a NOAA spokesperson, declined to comment on the expected layoffs, citing agency policy against discussing "internal personnel and management matters." However, she said, "We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission."

President Donald Trump last week told his Cabinet officials that they are in charge of downsizing their agencies, not billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency has been driving the slashing of staff and expenses at federal departments. In a post on Truth Social, Trump later pledged a thoughtful approach to cuts.

“As the Secretaries learn about, and understand, the people working for the various Departments, they can be very precise as to who will remain, and who will go,” he wrote. “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’

While other, larger federal agencies also have seen staff and budget cuts, Gallaudet said the Trump administration's purge of NOAA resonates deeply across the government and among scientists and the public because its services are so critical to public safety and the health of the world's climate and oceans. Experts say the National Weather Service, which has already seen several hundred losses from firings and deferred resignations, could see its ability to issue weather forecasts and severe weather advisories and warnings compromised as its 122 field offices — staffed 24 hours a day with sometimes just a handful of people — lose staff and resources.

"There's a large part of the public that's already very upset by this, and members of Congress will be getting an earful from their constituents," said Gallaudet. "We’re an agency that's liked on both sides of the aisle. At some point, Congress is going to have to take some action. This is stuff the administration should care about. They don’t know what they’re doing is the bottom line."

To date, the congressional opposition to the administration's actions at NOAA largely has come from Democrats, notably Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Rep. Jared Huffman of California, both of whom have large numbers of NOAA employee constituents. Van Hollen has made direct appeals to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to stop cutting NOAA staff.

"Elon Musk and Donald Trump are playing with the lives and livelihoods of the American people. We need to shut down their illegal operation NOW," Van Hollen said in an Instagram post.

Last week, Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said he had a commitment from the Trump administration not to move forward with three office closures in his state. An NOAA weather radar operations facility in Norman was one of 19 NOAA buildings on a list of possible DOGE lease terminations.


By:  Daniel Cusick
Source: GREENWIRE